Tricky Fabrics!

Maybe it’s knits because they stretch out of shape. Perhaps you have a particularly harrowing tale of matching up plaids. There’s always vinyl to frustrate you into the wee hours of the morning. For me, I cringe when I think of working with sheer fabrics. Somehow I always mess up, usually I need a new needle and forget halfway through the project until everything is nearly in tatters.

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Also, remember that you can find all the answers you need for tricky fabrics inside the pages of Sew News, or on our website.

44 Responses to Tricky Fabrics!

I always start a new project with a new needle. I buy my needles in packs of 100 so that it doesn’t bother me so much to be “using up” so many needles. They’re also cheaper that way. This way you never wreck your projects because you’re being too frugal with needles. Of course I keep plenty of specialty needles on hand too, which I stock up on when the fabric store has their notions wall items on sale for half price.

In the past few years I have made a few baby blankets out of “Minky dot” fabric.
That is a VERY tricky fabric to work with because it stretches out of shape
so easily!!! I love the fabric because it is so very soft, so if you have an answer to
this problem,
I would appreciate it!

I’m with Carol, I have a love/hate relationship with Minky. I have watched the YouTube Videos, read the tutorials and pinned, pinned and pinned some more. Even the walking foot didn’t make the experience pleasurable. But its so soft and beautiful!!

Vinyls! I have had to make seat covers for my SIL for his boat, what a challenge. I didn’t have a walking foot with me, and they did not feed well under the foot. Had to cut strips of paper to place on both sides of the fabrics so they would slide through. What a pain!

My hardest was making my son a Dracula Cape out of the black fluid silky material
that nuns used for their outer garments.It was on sale for a dollar a yard.So,I laid it all out on taped together newspaper and cut it out and sewed with the newspaper still attached.It came out beautiful, to my surprise. Sadly someone stole the cape. I had a great time making it and my son got many compliments at the Halloween Party he went to.

The most trixy thing I have attempted is sewing gloss vinyl motiefs onto stretchy see through mesh! I had to literally walk the roller foot over it, and ended up with excruciating pain in my right hand! I have tries silicone spray, teflon foot- all to no avail! What is the answer??

Silky fabrics move and shift. I don’t sew them that often so have to rediscover how to sew on them every time I use them! Using tissue paper strips, or strips of the stabilizer that can be washed out (if the fabric is washable) helps with silkies.

I dislike working with chiffon. I once had to alter a prom dress that was made out of all over beaded chiffon. Not only did I have to struggle with the chiffon, I had to remove then reattach beads after I made the alterations.

Plaids are not hard it just takes a longer time to lay them out. The fewer and straighter the seams the easier they are. On balanced plaids making sure the pattern notches are on the same cross lines helps cut the time needed to match. On unbalanced plaids cutting each piece individually one layer at a time and flipping the pattern works. This does increase cutting time, but decreases frustration in sewing. I cringe that so much ready to wear is done with mismatched plaids. Note that side darts will throw off the match and so decide whether it is better to have the match above or below the dart.

I love all the comments about slick filmy fabric. My favorite trick (when I was doing that knid of sewing) was an old large sweater. I cut the sweater across under the arms and sewed across to close it like a pillow case. I then threaded a cord close to the edge of the ribbing and then slid it on the fold down leaf of my cabinet and pulled the cord tight. I always cut slick fabric on tissue paper and sewed with the paper and fabric sandwiched. But the sweater was the trick because the fabric wasn’t slipping and sliding.

I made a cover for my grandson for when he sat in a grocery cart. I picked a nice navy & red cotton print for the outside and what I know as “minky” for the inside. Minky stretches & the cotton doesn’t. It came out perfect after much “finagaling”.

When I try to shorten the t-shirts, because they stretch as I sew, they curl up and pucker up. Ho can I fix that? I need to cut most of my shirts because I am short and they make these shirts too long. I wear a size L. HELP?